Inspiration can come in many forms, especially in cooking. You could be watching a TV show and see a recipe that you absolutely have to try. You could be in a diner, a restaurant or even a fine dining establishment (if you’re that good/wealthy/being spoiled!) and taste something in a dish that you’d never previously thought of or you could even be in the market and see an ingredient that you’d all but forgotten about and decide that you’re going to buy it and test out just what you can do with it.
For me, cook books provide a large degree of inspiration. I’m not talking about your typical Jamie Oliver/Gordon Ramsay piles of incoherent nonsense about preparing a meal in 30 minutes, for under a fiver, using only organic ingredients, while being a successful stealth restauranteur from your box bedroom and having a TV show. All of this using superfoods that are guaranteed to lose you weight, tone you up, stop you getting cancer/heart disease/having a stroke, while making you supremely attractive to the opposite sex (or same sex, depending on what you’re looking for). Not those books. That being said, I do own them (I own a ridiculous number of cook books) and I sometimes find them useful for the base of a recipe. I also operate under no illusion that they write their own recipes for the books.
This post is also intended to provide a little inspiration, whilst running through some of the inspirational tomes that I use on a regular basis for my food. I’d also be happy to hear any of your stories of inspiration and the books that provide them. I’m always looking to add to my reading list.
Tom Aikens
I actually think it’s a mixed blessing that programmes like The Great British Menu came along because it dragged genuinely talented chefs into the media limelight. It certainly raised their awareness within the public eye, and rightly brought their talents to the public attention. It has, however enticed them with the trappings of fame and the opportunity to “cash in” on that fame. Fortunately, Tom Aikens doesn’t seem to have done that too much, and his books have some excellent recipes in. One of my particular favourites is his Cooking book, as it runs through a whole series of techniques, ethics and philosophies on the ingredients used and the way dishes are constructed. Also, combining 2 or 3 recipes per page on occasion, things are kept simple, although he does sometimes assume at least a mid-range ability in the kitchen.
Michel Roux Jr
I admit it, I have a severe man-crush on Michel Roux Jr. Not only is he a seriously, seriously good chef from the single most prestigious family line in culinary history, but in every show I have seen him in, he almost shuns everything but the food, and he talks with great passion and is never afraid to illustrate technique. I also class Raymond Blanc in this category. I once watched a programme where he spent the whole 45 minutes talking about the differences in apples and methods of cooking them. Genius.
Anyway, back to Michel Roux Jr. The book in the picture is brilliant because it combines an autobiography with a recipe book and gives great insight into his own passions and inspirations. His section on composing a menu (page 160) is something that I have done time and time again as done properly it allows you to host and entertain, as well as make food to make people say wow.
A lot of the dishes in the book are high end, and if I am really looking to do something impressive, this is my first port of call. That being said, it is more along the lines of techniques in cooking and high quality ingredients. The Lobster and Mango salad is a prime example of this (page 259). It looks beautiful, but is wonderfully simple to prepare and plate. It also has a definite wow factor too.
Foreign Influences
I’ve been lucky in my work to have traveled fairly extensively, and with family connections abroad as well, I have been influenced and inspired by local cuisines. There is nothing I like more than going to a new city, new country or even a new continent and trying the local food in the local restaurants that the locals go to. It’s all about local right? The two books in the pictures below are just two of a wide range of books that I have the pleasure of owning.
Vefa’s kitchen is a new addition, but from the minute I opened it (at random to a recipe for Baked Shrimp Casserole) I fell in love with it. It is a full encyclopaedic reference guide to all things Greek (Apparently it’s more than Pastichio, Moussaka, Souvalaki and Taramasalata – who knew?) and how they are used in traditional Greek cooking. It’s a somewhat weighty tome, but manages to lay things out in a great way to follow through and grab the right ingredients. There is also a lovely section at the start about the different areas of Greece and their own styles of cooking. I’m going to be lucky enough to be spending time in Skiathos in July, so will undoubtedly be blogging from there about a wonderful series of local restaurants and dishes.
Evelin Ilves is an Estonian Chef, Traveller and All-Round Celebrity who has put together some of her favourite dishes from around the Mediterranean. I am also lucky to have been given the book by my father, who received it from Evelin herself and has been kind enough to sign it to him. The book itself is slightly confusing, since the first version of the recipe is in Estonian, and I can tell you that as a language, it’s ludicrously difficult to learn and understand. Fortunately, the translation is good and the recipes are easy to follow in English, plus there are some extra bonuses in the form of unusual recipes from Finland and Estonia itself, which I am fairly sure you just wouldn’t find in any other recipe book. This book is perfect if you’re looking for something to keep the most inquisitive of diners guessing!
And Finally
3 books that I couldn’t really categorise, but I love dearly. Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall’s meat book is a great resource for understanding exactly where your meat comes from and how it should and can be prepared. Whilst I am not his biggest fan (I think it’s utter pretentiousness that makes him believe that you can survive on foraged food and growing your own without a serious bank roll behind you (he used to be a City trader, so is hardly going to be short of a bob or two), and a lot of his recipes seem to be made more for the frugality of the dish, rather than the taste, the books he fronts on basic resources are very well written.
Two Fat Ladies are personal heroes of mine. They hark back to an era of unashamed indulgence and luxury and they have the wonderfully upper class attitudes that can only come with old money. I urge you to find as many TV episodes from their shows and watch them. Their recipes are fantastically rich and perfect for a special Sunday dinner, but you definitely don’t want to have them if you’re even remotely watching your weight. With one of their chocolate cake recipes, I think you may get diabetes just from reading it.
The Readers Digest is a lovely compendium of all of the techniques that you could ever wish to learn and master, although the book is somewhat 80’s in it’s style. I think that it’s in need of an update, but I am sure that they are working on that!
It’d be lovely to hear from you all as to your inspirational cookery guides and books – and yes, Sarah Beddow – I’m looking at you!